Comments about ‘Hatch dinged as crony capitalism comes under fire’

Foolish people vote without studying the issues and knowing the records of the candidates. Poor baby Orrin Hatch was called out for crony capitalism again was he, it's time to retire Hatch. All the GOP care about is more big guns for the hunters, subsidies for the Koch Brother's and their "Rich and Famous" friends. That's "welfare for the rich" government, subsidies to big business, pork-barrel Pentagon contracts to weapons makers, huge tax breaks for wealthy individuals, and most recently, colossal contracts for reconstruction to politically connected companies like Halliburton. Bureaucrats and politicians in Washington DC reminds me of "Elite Showdogs" that is an invitation-only e-mail list of long-time breeders, K Street and Wall Street exhibitors and judges that are judicial activist's. These politicians in Washington DC wear a GPS collar attachment to be found faster, so these K Street and Wall Street exhibitors can walk them around using a chain in circles until their dizzy enough to cave into them and give them what they want.

No RNC or DNC organization owns my vote, I will give it to whoever I feel will serve the nation best.

My truthful views.

My Stars!

The Deseret News actually published an anti-Capitalism article?!

Maybe because it's the TRUTH.
And we all know sometimes, the TRUTH hurts.

Way to go DN.
There's hope with you yet.

All the MORE reason to oust Hatch. Crony capitalism and/or "backdoor deals" are a good part of whats bankrupting our country whether its by the "R's" or the "D's".

Senator Hatch's campaign slogan ("Orrin Hatch--Unapologetically Fighting for Utah!") tells the entire story. He really believes that Utahns crave more federal dollars landing in Utah (he is careful not to mention the massive additional cost for the projects promised in trade to other Senators to bring home that bacon).

Really Senator? We’re broke! We already owe more than $5,100,000,000,000 to China, Japan and more than 35 other countries! I know that pork-barrel politics has been standard operating procedure in Washington from since forever, but it HAS TO STOP!! That $5.1 trillion represents $68,000 for every child in America—truly fiscal child abuse as Dan Liljenquist noted.

Enough of this nonsense! Senator Hatch should not get a pass for all the big spending programs for which he has voted just because a) they were “good” programs or b) because they “came in less than the projections” or c) because they are “for Utah”.

When you’re broke, you’re broke. TIME FOR BEANS AND RICE, NOT PORK!

To "LDS Liberal" I am not sure what article you read, but I don't think it was this one. This was NOT an anti-capitalism article. It was an anti-Hatch article in that it showed how he was abandoning the free market in favor of the government picking the winners and losers.

Hatch knows who his friends are and what they need his to steer their way.

Raser Technologies is Sen. Hatch's "Solyndra." And, as last week's radio debate shows, Hatch makes no apologies for diverting taxpayer funds to this bankrupt "green energy" company. Wow. Voters should be as outraged at Hatch as they are about Obama and Solyndra.

But maybe this story shouldn't surprise us, because it's consistent with Hatch's other big-government/over-spending behavior in recent years. Too much time in Washington tends to corrupt honest motives and principles. Now Hatch's primary motive is to keep his grasp on power. He used to be a great senator, but he should have stepped down several terms ago, like Jake Garn did.

Orrin Hatch has now become an industry. For dozens of former staff members (not to mention his campaign team), he has become a source of six-figure salaries, paid for by the kind of crony capitalism Erik so delightfully skewers in his article. This is not capitalism, but rent-seeking: the use of government power to gain a competitive advantage, through regulation of competitors, subsidies, or trade and tariff protections.

These things are the antithesis of capitalism, but they are the warp and woof of Hatch Inc. (established 1976, and still going strong).

g

This is precisely what happens to you when you stay in Washington DC too long. You become a part of it. You become a pickled politician.

This story makes me want to rush out and make up some fake company and then lobby Senator Hatch for some sweet government cash. It'd be the quickest million I'll ever make.

Well, guys, it's all a matter of scale, isn't it? No one's screaming when our government gives huge tax breaks to companies just to move here. No one analyzes where the break even points in those subsidies are. Hatch proudly advertises he keeps the federal government from closing Hill AFB and saving local jobs, and no one complains about cronyism there. When the scale affects your paycheck it's right on, right? It is probably the right thing to do, the federal government supporting in relatively small ways some kinds of new industry that could be very useful to the country in the long run, both green projects. We are falling behind the rest of the world in "innovative development," actually. This is not a pro Hatch statement, it's a pro intervention comment--intervention is sometimes a good thing, sometimes not. To aid some rich guy, probably not. To make progress toward a cleaner world, probably good. To close your mind and brain and "just say no" or just say "yes" is not a good use of what your creator gave you, though.